Our Bodies Ourselves has posted “Choices in Childbirth: A Statement by Physicians, Midwives and Women’s Health Advocates who Support Safe Choices in Childbirth,” which articulates concerns about preserving safe choices in childbirth and respect for the diversity of women’s needs. If you would like to sign this statement and insure that women have choices in how theygive birth, there is more information after the jump.
Currently signed by more than 35 midwives, physicians, educators, and other women’s health advocates, the statement urges the following actions:
1. That communities preserve the option of vaginal births after cesarean (so-called “VBACs”).
2. That options for hospital-based midwifery care (utilizing Certified Nurse Midwives and Certified Midwives) be made available in all communities across the country.
3. That Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs) be licensed and regulated in order to make the option of homebirth as safe as possible.
The statement also calls for evidence-based practices in maternity care, and for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Medical Association “to strike those resolutions that deny childbearing women the autonomy and rights that medical professionals, educators, and women’s health advocates have historically endorsed.”
Read the complete statement and add your signature HERE .